Information Centric Networking is an emerging networking approach that aims to address many of the shortcomings inherent in the Internet Protocol, particularly in current networks and in the networks envisioned in the future. One specific approach to Information Centric Networking, also known as Content-Centric Networking (CCN) and/or Named Data Networking (NDN), appears to be gaining mindshare in the research community and in industry, and promises to significantly improve network scalability, performance, and reduce cost over a network built on the Internet Protocol (IP). CCN/NDN provides native and elegant support for client mobility, multipath connectivity, multicast delivery and in-network caching; many of which are critical for current and future networks, and all of which require inefficient and/or complex managed overlays when implemented in IP. Further, CCN/NDN provides a much richer addressing framework than that existing in IP, which could eliminate significant sources of routing complexity.
As HTTP/IP is baked into the networking field (equipment, software stacks, applications, services, engineering knowledge, business models, even national policies), it may seem daunting to consider the use of a non-IP protocol. However, while IP has been a phenomenally successful networking protocol for the last 40 years, as technology and time progress it is reasonable to believe that we won't be utilizing it forever. One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates employing preemptive caching in CCN/NDN to provide a much and potentially more optimal alternative to the Content Distribution Network (CDN) paradigm that has been built to support HTTP/IP content distribution.